Selling a home contingent on finding another

Question: Dear Kari, My husband and I want to sell our home and buy our forever home, but we are so scared that if we sell, then we may not not have enough time to find a better home for ourselves. We have heard about this thing referred to as homeowners selling with a contingency as a safety net. Can you please explain this to us? Answer: Thank you for your super question and may I say that we are defiantly in a sellers' market, which is when demand exceeds supply. In other words, there are many more buyers than homes offered for sale and in this situation, the home sellers are in the advantage position and this has been a recent hot topic. In our sellers' market, some sellers are concerned about selling their current home and not being able to find the new home that meets their needs. An attempt to help homeowners feel more comfortable, a home sale contingency is one type of clause that can be included in a real estate listing contract offered for sale on the open market for all buyers. With the home sale contingency in place, the transaction is contingent on the sellers finding the home of their choice. In the event that the sellers find and get into contract on their replacement home, all is good and the home sale continues all the way to the closing table. However, in the event that the homeowners cannot find a home of their choice, then the sale is dead and all of the buyers' deposit monies are returned, end of the deal. The sellers do not really have a downside in the situation. However, the buyers might lose out in several ways. For instance, the buyers' interest rate might go up or their loan commitment might expire. While waiting for the sellers to make up their mind, the buyers might miss out on even a better home offered for sale and the real estate market could rise upward in price, costing the buyer more for another home. In my opinion, the sellers when offering their home for sale subject to finding a replacement home of their choice has all pluses for the seller and offers very little for the home buyers. In addition, the home buyers who wait lose out to a seller choosing not to sell at all in the end. In addition, this situation can also cause the buyers and their agent a ton of unnecessary stress, along with wasted efforts to an already stressful time in a sellers' market. I hope this information has offered you some insight and I wish you the best in your home purchase. Kari McCoy , CRS, has been a Realtor for more than 30 plus years and owns the Kari McCoy Group, Residential Real Estate, at Lyon Real Estate #00841588. Call her at 916-933-5274 or email her at sold@karimccoygroup.com.